“It is the king of the citrus fruits,” said Leffler, who spoke to WWD from a newly-minted “Grapefruit Lounge,” chock full of shocking pink furniture, at the Yes To headquarters in San Francisco. “I’m going to do this [interview] grapefruit style,” quipped Leffler, whose team had given the new line the code name, “Barbados,” the fruit’s birthplace, to keep details on the down low. “Launching a new family at Yes To is not something we take lightly. It’s like having another child.”

Focused on addressing sunspots and pigmentation, the collection includes seven products for face and body, ranging from $5.99 for Brightening Facial Towelettes to $19.99 for a Dark Spot Correcting Serum. The collection will be launched at 12,000 doors — including Target, Walgreens and yestocarrots.com — in March. Although the brand wouldn’t break out figures, industry sources believe the grapefruit line could generate between $5 million and $10 million in its first year at retail.

“A lot of customers are growing up with us and are now looking for something a little bit different,” said Leffler, who added that the line is designed for women coming into their 30s “starting to worry about how they look in regards to complexion.” In addition to antioxidant-rich grapefruit, each Yes To Grapefruit offering features complementary ingredients like lemon balm to calm and repair damaged skin, passion flower extract to decrease puffiness and nutrient-rich argan oil. “For this launch, we honed in on grapefruit extract, which is clinically proven to [lessen the appearance] of dark spots,” said Amy Hart, product development manager. “Beyond brightening, it is a great anti-inflammatory and helps protect against free radicals.” Accordingly, the tag line for Yes To Grapefruit is “Correct & Repair”, which follows the brand’s existing catchphrases, including Yes To Carrots’ “Nourishing,” Yes to Cucumbers’ “Soothing,” Yes to Blueberries’ “Age Refresh” and Yes to Tomatoes’ “Clear Skin.”

“We saw a need that our current lineup wasn’t meeting in the area of uneven skin tone, complexion repair and age spots,” said Yes To chief executive officer, Joy Chen, adding that internal consumer research revealed explosive growth in the brightening category, and white space for natural brands. “The catalyst [for a new range] is always the customer,” said Leffler. “In this case, the customers’ needs and the trends have aligned perfectly.”

According to Leffler, both the packaging and fragrance were meant to be cheery and complement the rest of the colors in the Yes To line. “The [scent] reminds me of South Florida and cutting into a grapefruit,” said Hart. “It lifts your spirits, there is no other way to describe it.” Added Leffler, “It was really about creating a line that not only helped correct and repair age spots but also one that would give you a sensory feeling as if you were using a high-end product on the market.”

For Leffler it is also important that the new ingredient “ambassador” be “approachable and fun and easy to understand,” with clinical testing to match.

“We wanted to make sure these products had strong claimable benefits,” said Leffler, adding that independent clinical testing revealed the line would help diminish visible dark spots in four weeks.

Marketing for the line — comprised of the Exfoliating Body Wash, Dark Circle Correcting Eye Cream, the Dark Spot Correcting Serum, the Daily Facial Scrub, the Dark Spot Correcting Body Crème, the Even Skin Tone Moisturizer with SPF 15 and the Brightening Facial Towelettes — will be centered on social media, with an emphasis on sharing the product with others.

“We want to get this into as many people’s hands as possible and will be doing a lot of sampling,” said Leffler, who plans to distribute hundreds of thousands of samples targeting new moms and women from their 20s to their 40s. Added Chen, “The theme is ‘get the glow with your girlfriends.’ We are most focused on consumer connections and how we reach her and get her to buy.”